Mark Dubowitz in the Media

US Sets New Sanctions Against Technology for Syria and Iran

The White House said that the restrictions were primarily aimed at entities based inside the two countries, but that American technology companies had been consulted and understood that compliance would now be part of their standard due diligence in international contracts.

Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonprofit research organization, said the sanctions would be most useful if they took aim at a company like ZTE, the Chinese telecommunications manufacturer, which has sold systems to Iran used for surveillance of dissidents.

"For this executive order to have any impact, it has to go after a company like ZTE," he said. "If it doesn't, it has far less significance, because the reality is we have a trade embargo against Iran. There's a thicket of very strict sanctions law already in place. The real value in U.S. sanctions is when they're secondary sanctions."